Salvation

Re "Vatican Declares Catholicism Sole Path to Salvation," Sept. 6: As a Catholic, no sooner do I finish apologizing to my Jewish friends for the pope's beatification of Pope Pius IX then now I must apologize to my non-Catholic religious friends for the Vatican's statement that the Catholic Church is the sole path to spiritual salvation for all of humanity. So my church has now offended the Jews and all non-Catholic religious individuals--not too many left to offend except for the atheists and the agnostics, but I guess they're not worth the trouble to offend, since I'm sure my church has concluded their cause is most certainly lost.

Jamie Coots, the Appalachian minister and "Snake Salvation" reality star who died Saturday after a rattlesnake he was handling in church bit him on the hand, will be remembered with a tribute special to air on National Geographic Channel. Coots, who was 42, was the star of NatGeo's "Snake Salvation," which aired for a single season on the cable channel last year. He handled snakes while ministering at his church in Middleboro, Ky. He was a practitioner of a 100-year-old tradition that involved the handling of live and deadly snakes in church.

Re "O.C. Catholic Bishop to Lead Church's U.S. Interfaith Effort," Oct. 28: Martin Luther needs someone to speak for him. It's not "something new." Bishop Tod Brown and Murray Finck, bishop of the Pacifica Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, recapitulate Contarini and Melanchthon. In 1541 at Regensburg an agreement was reached that resulted in Contarini being accused of heresy by Rome and Melanchthon's compromise being rejected by Luther. The agreement read, "Only the grace of God in the merits of Christ justified sinners and saved them through faith.

His aging truck was wheezing and the hot-air balloon in the trailer was ragged and non-functional. So Leonard Knight, self-described "little hobo bird," pulled into a barren patch of desert in the Imperial Valley and decided that he had found the right spot to bring his message to the world: "God is Love. " He planned to spend a week or two. But then he was gripped by the spirit. For the next three decades the lean and sturdy New Englander joyously painted a tall mound of adobe he called Salvation Mountain.

Residents of a California suburb get ready to welcome a predicted spacecraft landing in Mark McNease's "Over Jordan," a new play that just opened at Friends and Artists Theatre in the Hollywood district. "It's our first original production--after 2 1/2 years of working out different styles and pulling a company together," said Friends and Artists artistic director Sal Romeo.

In a blog post written two weeks after detectives say an Orange County Internet advertising executive killed his partner and covered up his death last year, the man wrote about mistakes he'd made and about finding salvation and redemption through religion. Orange County prosecutors allege that Christopher Ryan Smith, a 32-year-old executive, was killed by Edward Younghoon Shin, 33, in their San Juan Capistrano office. Shin then used Smith's email account to contact Smith's family and tell incredible tales of a journey across Africa and paragliding near Johannesburg before disappearing as he traveled to the Congo and Rwanda.

The note on the door of Frankie Jean Terrell's house on Louisiana Avenue read, "Gone to Alexandria for the day . . . Frankie Jean." The house is just a block from the old Assembly of God Church on Texas Avenue, where Terrell sang as a child with her older brother Jerry Lee Lewis and their cousin Jimmy Lee Swaggart. Her note was intended to ward off fans who come from as far as Australia--often on a side trip from Elvis' Graceland in Memphis--to see the old home of Lewis, the Wildman of Rock.

President Obama said Tuesday that he is a "Christian by choice" and that his decision was influenced by gospel teachings about salvation and the importance of loving one another. His mother and the grandparents who helped raised him weren't regular churchgoers, Obama told a group here. But he became a Christian later in life because of the religion's basic principles, he said. "It was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead," Obama said.

Regarding Robert Eisenman's concern for the stone ossuary bearing Jesus' name being "too pat, too perfect" (Commentary, Oct. 29): It doesn't matter to believers. Believers know that salvation and truth rest on another stone; namely Jesus, the rock of our salvation. If it is true, then it is confirmation of what we already know, and if not, then it is just more diversion from the devil. Jim Allen Orange

Everybody's especially thankful this time of year. Maybe it's for friends you can count on in your time of need, or parents who have been there all along. Or, perhaps, for something more tangible, like money or a fast car. Hot Topics wonders: "For what in your life do you give the most thanks?" "I am thankful for all my friends who are very special to me, for my sister, my mom and dad and most of all, for my personal salvation."

Randy McDonald darted his eyes between the lotus bed and a pack of police officers, wondering if he could get away with it. He figured it was worth a try and walked from Echo Park Lake back to his car. After opening the glove compartment, he pulled out a hacksaw blade and stuck it into his back pocket. He tugged his T-shirt to cover it and returned to the lake. He worked his way through the thick crowd of revelers gathered for the 28th annual Lotus Festival and then crouched down at the water's edge.

CAIRO - In another blow to Egypt's troubled democratic transition, the main opposition coalition announced Tuesday that it would boycott upcoming parliamentary elections because it didn't trust the Islamic-led government of President Mohamed Morsi to guarantee a fair vote. The decision by the secular and liberal National Salvation Front was widely expected after the nation's highest court ruled this month that provisions in the election law were unconstitutional. The opposition's strategy virtually ensures that Islamists, notably the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultraconservative Nour Party, will dominate the new legislature after the vote, which begins in April.

LaRon Armstead is a former college athlete, 6 feet 5 inches tall, 23 years old and physically imposing. Yet, standing outside Holmes Elementary in South Los Angeles, he is actually shivering - and not from the cold. He has returned to his old neighborhood for the first time in 10 years because an acquaintance has asked to see his childhood haunts. But he can't help himself. His body is physically reacting. "It's scary," he says, voice trembling. "It reminds me of who I was and who I was on track to be. " Armstead, the sixth of 13 children, was raised in the Pueblo Del Rio housing project, a place he says was shrouded by hopelessness, where drugs were sold at all hours and gunshots were part of the normal cacophony of life.

CAIRO - Egypt's leading opposition group urged its followers Wednesday to vote against an Islamist-inspired draft constitution, ending weeks of indecision over whether antigovernment forces should boycott the referendum, which begins this weekend and pits secularists against the Muslim Brotherhood. The move by the National Salvation Front is a crucial test of its popularity against President Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist supporters. The opposition movement has revived the country's revolutionary fervor but has been marred by division and poor organization, which are expected to be exploited by the Brotherhood's vast grass-roots networks.

"Do something!" That was the command William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, gave his son upon seeing homeless men huddled under London Bridge. Booth was a man of action who, in his zeal to save souls, valued deeds over creeds. What would the 19th century Christian evangelist have done about the growing number of poor today, huddled in American cities, suburbs and on farms? According to a recent Associated Press article, economists expect that when the 2011 census figures are released this fall, they will show that poverty has climbed to 15.7%, its highest level in 50 years.

Projected to be a division or conference champion, the Kings instead find themselves scrambling for one of the last West playoff spots as they head toward the final dozen games of the season. There's no purpose at this stage in analyzing what went wrong. They can still wring something good out of a so-far disappointing season, and they helped themselves Tuesday with a 5-2 victory at Staples Center over the injury-thinned but always tough Detroit Red Wings. In winning for the fifth time in seven games, the Kings moved up to 10th place and joined three other teams with 78 points.

P.T. Barnum fans rejoice. What with the Jim and Tammy Bakker scandals as lead into the Ollie North follies, the year is shaping up as quite a circus. Old P.T. himself would be roaring with delight to see this nation of suckers urging Ollie for President and praying for Jim and Tammy's salvation. All we need to crowd out the cast of characters is the Old Gipper to handle the voice overs. Punch line: The joke is on U.S. LELAND KATZ Tarzana

Re "A Call for Grown-Ups," editorial, May 10: The cellphone incident involving a 17-year-old high school student in Columbus, Ga., talking to his mother who is serving in Iraq was handled poorly. I am a veteran and know firsthand what it is like to be stationed halfway around the world. Just a word of encouragement from home is salvation for a weary soul. School administrators in this case do not have a clue about being understanding. They need to be retrained in human relations.

Last-minute shoppers at Fashion Island in Newport Beach won't hear one of the most familiar sounds of Christmas: the Salvation Army bell. Salvation Army workers and their red kettles are stationed outside Bloomingdales and Macy's at the upscale mall with an ocean view, but they have agreed to a request to not ring their bells. "You have to respect store owners, people," said Salvation Army Major Antonio Orta, who oversees the three bell ringers — their actual job title — on the property owned by the Newport Beach-based Irvine Co. "We have to comply because we solicit on their premises," Orta said.

On Nov. 9, London's National Gallery will open a highly anticipated exhibition, "Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan. " While Leonardo shows are reliable blockbusters, this one will have a particular appeal because it will feature what many believe to be a "lost" Leonardo painting. "Salvator Mundi" (Savior of the World) shows a distinctly spooky half-length image of Christ against an amorphous dark background. His features are slightly ghosted, an effect called sfumato that Leonardo brought to the fore, in which a dry brush is swept over nearly dry paint in order to gently blur lines and meld colors.